AN EXTRAORDINARY SCENE took place in the Central Criminal Court. Sarah Murray and Mary Lynch were indicted for assaulting Susan Snellgrove and causing her grievous bodily harm.
In the beginning of March a notoriously bad character, named Daniel Harris, was committed for trial at the Surrey sessions for a street robbery. There was some difficulty in establishing the identity of Harris, and Snellgrove, who appeared to have seen him running away after the robbery, was subpoenaed by the police to give evidence. The trial was to come on at the March sessions, and as the prosecutrix was going there, the prisoners followed her and declared that if she gave evidence against Harris they would settle her before night.
On the same evening the prosecutrix went out, and when she had gone a short distance she saw the prisoners. Lynch struck her a violent blow, which turned her round, and Murray then struck her a blow on the eye, which was knocked completely out of the socket. The clothes of the prosecutrix were torn entirely off her by the prisoners and some of their companions.
At the hospital the remains of the wounded eye were removed, and for some time it was feared that she would lose the sight of the other.
The jury found both prisoners guilty of the entire charge, and added that they were of opinion that the act was done with the intent to take the eye out. Baron Bramwell, in indignant terms, remarked upon the savage nature of the act committed by the prisoners, and sentenced them to be kept in penal servitude for life.
The moment the sentence was pronounced the prisoner Lynch rushed at Murray and seized her by the hair, and it was with difficulty she was rescued from her. She was then about to commit some other violence, but the warders seized her, and they were both removed, shrieking, from the dock. The prisoner Lynch was under the impression apparently that Murray had given the information that had led to her apprehension.
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